Found Home in One Another

On November 16th, I officiated Suzanne and Mel’s wedding ceremony at the Renaissance Dallas Addison Hotel, in Addison, Texas. Here are the remarks I shared with them and their guests:

Some love stories unfold in a single rush. Others take their time, quietly proving themselves over the years. Suzanne and Mel’s is the kind that shows us what patient, steady love can build.

Suzanne says that when she first met Mel on August 1, 2013, she was finally ready “to open my heart.” From that moment, she writes, Mel has been “a source of strength, protecting me, encouraging me, caring for me, lifting me up, honoring my free spirit of independence and—above all—healing my heart to trust love again.”

That’s quite a list, and Mel has met every part of it. She tells us, “I am truly happier, wiser, stronger, and more at ease with life because of him.” And you can hear how much that means when she adds, “He continues to be a source of strength… he has replaced fear with love.”

Mel, in his quiet way, reveals just as much. He grew up surrounded by family and cousins. From childhood he absorbed a deep respect for Scripture, what he calls “the inspired Word of Jehovah… a sense of order, purpose, and discernment.” For him, marriage is a sacred commitment—“a declaration of exclusivity… commitment, responsibility, integrity, fidelity, belonging.”

Mel says..."when I met Suzanne, I was in search of someone special. Someone who loves family and who has the qualities of strength, dignity, integrity and kindness. Truly a Proverbs 31 woman."

He also has a playful side that Suzanne adores. She remembers that very first night at the country-western dance hall when “I told myself I would open my heart and in walked Mel.” They danced, they laughed, and from then on he’s been, in her words, the one who “makes me feel safe, seen, and cherished.”

What do we learn from them? First, that love is not about rushing the clock. Suzanne admits, "It's taken me quite some time to release my nervous feelings about marriage." Mel understood that. Early on he would ask, half-joking, “Hey babe, would you like to make this more permanent?” And when the answer was “not yet,” he simply gave her space. No pressure, no ultimatum—just patience.

Second, they show us that real partnership is about quiet, everyday faith. Suzanne speaks of “personal prayer, gardening, and being in nature” as her spiritual fulfillment. Mel speaks of “the priesthood of the believer,” of each person’s direct relationship with the Divine. Together they have created a life that honors both of those truths—grounded in faith, but never bound by fear.

So today, when they stand beneath the chuppah, we celebrate more than a wedding. We celebrate the triumph of trust over hesitation, the kind of steadfast love that waits as long as it takes.

Suzanne and Mel, may you continue to be each other’s strength and calm, the safe harbor and the joyful dance partner. May your marriage, like your love story, be filled with patience, laughter, and the quiet certainty that you have truly found home in one another.